Once upon a time, in a land not far away, pretty close, actually, there was a discussion about breast-feeding in restaurants. I recall comparing that to cutting one's toe nails in public. The Post has an piece today on such things.
Public Primping Raises Eyebrows
Metro Riders Floss, Clip, Curl and Annoy
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 3, 2002; Page A01
Try as she might, Liza Hodskins can't forget the moment during a Red Line ride to Silver Spring when she was roused from her reading by a familiar yet unexpected sound. She turned to see the woman behind her flossing her teeth.
"I felt sick," said Hodskins, who shot an angry glance toward the dental hygiene hobbyist.
In terms of sheer equipment, though, the flosser can't compare with an unidentified woman who has been spotted on the Orange and Red lines with her portable curling iron. "She pulled that curler on and twisted that hair just like she was at home in her bathroom," said Barbara Gant, 49, who witnessed the scene aboard the Orange Line. "Some of the lady riders asked her where she got it and said they were going to get one for themselves. They were all impressed."
It's no secret that people primp and shave and put on cosmetics in their automobiles during morning drive time, insulated behind glass and steel from one another in a way that gives them the illusion of privacy.
But more and more, it seems, commuters are doing their grooming on public transportation, inches from strangers in packed trains and buses. It's a blurring of the line separating public and private space, a breakdown in decorum fueled by a harried lifestyle and the newly informal culture that spawned casual Fridays.
"I'm not embarrassed to admit I do it constantly," said Carolyn McDavid, who applies foundation, mascara, lipstick, eyeliner and blush during her commute on the Red and Blue lines.
Nicole Cloyd is a 26-year-old working mother who saves her makeup routine for the Metro because she spends the early morning feeding and dressing her two young boys.
In truth, Cloyd could probably steal a moment at home to apply her makeup. But she sees her 45-minute ride from Brookland to Shady Grove stations as her time – the only chunk of the day when she's not answering to children or a husband or a boss. She almost savors the ritual of lip pencil, lipstick and eyeliner in the quiet hum of a Red Line car.
There are women who paint their nails and those who strip them of paint with cotton balls soaked in pungent polish remover. Ladies board trains packing more makeup in their bulging cosmetic bag than Mary Kay. Men spray their heads with chemicals that promise to turn their thinning scalp into a Rod Stewart mane.
And then there are the clippers – a class of men and women given away by the unmistakable ping in otherwise silent subway cars.
"They were arcing onto the carpet," Sarah Peters, 26, recalling the fingernails clipped by a middle-aged woman who shared her morning Yellow Line train about two months ago. "She made no effort to contain the nail clippings or clean them up. She simply let them fall on the carpet and left them there. I was amazed."
Not as amazed as Emilia Kelley, who watched a woman finish clipping her fingernails only to move on to her toenails one summer morning on the Red Line. "She slipped off her shoe, pulled up her foot and started clipping away," said Kelley, 38.
To hear ticked-off riders tell it, there are people plucking and flossing and powdering across the Metro system.
"Women are constantly doing their hair, makeup and nails on the Yellow Line," said Carol Dwyer, 41, who boards at Huntington. She has noticed more Metro riders grooming in the past six months. "Every morning, you will find someone with a little Estee Lauder compact. . . . I hate it. If they just got up a little earlier, they could do that at home. I know it's convenient. Metro is like an extension of your home, almost. But it's disrespectful to the other passengers."
Groomers appear to be mostly women, but men are guilty, too.
On a Red Line train to Glenmont three weeks ago, a man was straddling a priority seat, head down, spraying his brown hair from a travel-size spray bottle. He spent 10 minutes soaking every strand of hair, and two more minutes massaging the spray into his scalp, oblivious to stares from fellow passengers. He pulled a comb from his open black toiletries kit and, using the door window as a mirror, combed his locks with painstaking care. Somewhere around Dupont Circle, he took out a razor and ran it along the sides of his face.
None of the riders interviewed for this article spoke directly to the groomers, and none of the groomers reported getting angry comments from other riders. Communication seems to be nonverbal. "I get scowls from the women, but the men are fascinated," McDavid said.
Grooming isn't limited to the subway.
On the D6 Metrobus two weeks ago, a woman sitting next to Ellen Jo Heier was dabbing light-colored powder on her face when she dropped her compact. "A little bit of powder got onto my black pants," said Heier, who had to take them to a dry cleaner. "Then she took out her lipstick and was making noises and looking at her teeth to make sure her lipstick wasn't on her teeth."
Aboard the MARC commuter trains, nail clippers drive Charles Herrmann nuts. "Not the noise," said Herrmann, 61, who rides the Brunswick Line. "Just the thought of this seemingly private act being done in public. And the evidence that is left behind. . . . I was brought up where people do that in private, and now they're doing that in public."
That's precisely the problem, said Peggy Post, great-granddaughter-in-law of Emily Post, the arbiter of good manners whose 1922 book, "Etiquette," set the parameters for polite society.
"Grooming should be done in a restroom or at home," Post said. "You do not do your personal grooming in front of others."
A discreet swipe of lipstick on a train or bus is acceptable, but anything more is over the line, Post said.
The Metro Transit Police, who gained national notice for arresting a 12-year-old girl who was eating french fries in a station, say there are no rules prohibiting onboard grooming. The subway system's law against flammable liquids refers to gasoline and other accelerants that can be used to start a fire, not nail polish remover or hair spray, Deputy Police Chief Polly Hanson said. "I don't believe we've ever written anybody a citation for taking nail polish off," Hanson said.
Still, Metro spokesman Ray Feldmann said passengers should heed the advice of Peggy Post.
"As a courtesy to others, it might be best if that grooming take place at home, before entering the system," he said. "Metro grooming tip number one – which applies equally to men and women: Metro is for touch-ups, not makeovers."
Staff writer Lena Sun contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company |
